I promised myself that once I passed the NCLEX-RN, I would post how I studied on here because I did a lot of research from this site about what people did to pass.
I took the NCLEX-RN yesterday and it cut off at 75 questons. I got the Pearson Vue
"good pop up" and this morning I woke up and was surprised to find that my registered nursing license has alreadybeen posted on the Board of Nursing. I am officially an RN!! It usually takes 48hrs to post on the board they say, but I and some of my classmates have been posting our RN screen shot of the Board of Nursing with our name and RN license (excluding the license number of course) on Face book, haha. It's official! Don't have to pay Pearson Vue $8 for "Quick Results! HA! They ain't getting another dime from me, the $200 was enough!!!
Anyway, I'm thankful for this site, because if it wasn't for post from people sharing how they studied, I wouldn't have known how and when and where to begin.
I graduated April 26, 2014. I took a week off from school. Didn't open a book. I got my ATT and schedule my test for May 27, 2014. I started studying May 11. So, I had about two weeks to study.
Everyone says to schedule your test ASAP while the information is still fresh. I agree. Some of my cohorts scheduled their exam a week after graduation and passed. One girl only used Saunders, 5th edition--only did questions in the book, Scheduled her exam May8th and passed. (We used ati thoughout school though, and she had scored a 99% chance of passing on her ATI predictor too, so that may have helped--but she only used Saunders to study for the 8 days she had between graduating and taking the exam) So Schedule ASAP!
Anyway, HERE is HOW I STUDIED:
I used
ATI throughout school, it's mandatory at our school. I had scored an 83/100 on the 180 question ATI Comprehensive Predictor-2013 which equaled a 99% chance that I would pass the NCLEX the first time. I did not take that to heart though to mean anything at all. I still studied very hard anyway.
In the two weeks between the exam I used solely:
*Kaplan NCLEX-RN Strategies, Practice, and Review 2013-2014
I did all the questions in the book and on the disk
*Saunders Comprehensive Review 5th edition--
I did all the questions in the book and I practiced the alternate format /multiple format questions (select all that apply questions) on the Saunders CD in study mode. That allowed me to practice only the select all that apply questions. There are 199 of those. I did all of them. Select all that apply is a weakness of mine....
*Priority Delegation and Assignment by Lacharity 2nd edition
I only did chapter 1 through 18. Everyone says the case studies aren't necessary to do. I agree. MUST HAVE BOOK for priority question on nclex
*Kaplan questions trainers 1-7
I don't think It's wholly necessary to do all these. I had done 1-4 throughout my last semester of school and 5-7 the two weeks leading up to the exam. I don't know if it was helpful or not. I didn't get a chance to go back over the questions I missed.
*35 Page study guide someone wrote on here was fabulous!! It had great mneumonics. You should be able to find it one here but if you can't message me and I'll send in to you.
* I revisted a few ATI questions that I had missed and did a couple new test, maybe 4)
I did a little bit of Hurst...here and there...I like it okay. I have a good foundation in content though, and I got bored with the videos I had seen them all throughout school my 4th and 5th semester...so I kinda looked at them again, kinda didn't. I don't think Hurst videos are that necessary, but they are helpful. I know a girl from my class that passed with 75 questions only using Hurst. I didn't want to pay $300. The videos I have access to aren't new ones, they are old and borrowed, but still good.
Honestly, I think I over did it.
You could probably stick to using two resources and pass.
The most important thing to do is PRACTICE QUESTIONS. Try to do 100 questions a day. Read the rationale and make sure you understand the concept of what the question is asking. You don't need all these resources really. I just like studying from different things. I get bored easily.
Also, go back over question you missed. If you use a book, mark with a pencil the questions you missed and repractice them maybe 2 days later to see if you get them right the next time. I think that is really important to got over your missed questions and not just skip over them. If you don't get them right after going back over them again, you may miss the concept on NCLEX. Going after your missed questions is the only way to make sure you understand the question and the concept.
Good Luck!
KatRNBSN2014
66 Posts
MGH2014, I really did not study pharm intensily because, before taking my nclex, I heard from many people that they didn't get a lot of pharm questons and when they did get pharmacology questions they didn't recognize the drugs anyway. I may have gotten a couple pharm questions, maybe one drug I didn't know. When I was studying nclex questions, I did look up drugs whenever I got a question and wasn't familiar with the drug. That was about as much studying I did for pharm. Just looked up the drugs in practice questions if I didn't get a question correct.